Stop signs!

Was out riding last Sunday and decided to cut through a local park that has a bike path.( I was on the road) Any way as I turned into the park the road rounds a bend and comes to an intersection of a parking lot. Well, a car pulls right out in front of me and I barely manage to avoid him. I was just about to yell indignately when I noticed the two foot high stop sign I had just run! I didn't even see it. So, I guess my point is to always be aware. I got caught napping and very nearly paid a painful lesson for it.

I think the more important lesson here is to take extra special care at any point where a path intersects a roadway (or parking lot).

Even without a stop sign, you should have slowed to pedestrian speeds at the end of the path, to be prepared for exactly something like what happened. You should not rely on bureaucrats to think of putting stop signs on paths in all the approriate places. You should be able to figure out where the stops signs should be (whether they are there or not), and ride accordingly.

The reason path intersections are so dangerous is because it is very easy for others (like the driver of the car that pulled out right in front of you) to not even be thinking about the potential of cyclists flying out of the path, much less looking for it. As far as they were concerned, there was no traffic in the vicinity...

Seriously, I have done the same thing. My biggest near-mis's with motorists have been when I presumed on stop signs, rolling through and looking as I go, rather than stopping and waiting to save time/catch up with the pack/whaterver. Believe me. If yiou are hauled off in an ambulance, you will never catch up with the pack.

I doubt whether a 2 foot high stop sign is even legally enforceable. It was probably advisory only. However, riding defensively as though you expect whatever could go wrong to actually go wrong is good advice. I frequently just turn right when coming off a bike bath into an intersection. Then, I use my rearview to determine when a u-turn is safe. his is particualrly effective where landscaping and such obscures the vision, especially of drivers coming from behind making a right turn.